By Tommy Acosta: For Phoenix resident John Stuart, helping people fight home foreclosures is not just a passion but an art form as well.
A speaker, lecturer and proponent for justice in the judicial system, Stuart has created a doctrine and legal argument he believes can help people stop banks from foreclosing on their homes, especially in Arizona, a non-judicial foreclosure state, where the banks do not have to go through a legal process to take away an owner’s home.
His concept is simple, boiling down to one single phrase , “show me the loan,” the premise being one purchases their home with a Promissory Note but never really receives an actual loan as agreed in the Deed of Trust.
“You bought the house with your Promissory Note,” he said. “That deal is complete. The Deed of Trust is a whole separate deal and has nothing to do with the Promissory Note. You have been paying for a loan because you think that is how you bought the house. You are wrong. The bank has still never given you the loan.”
He claims while most mortgage holders are ignorant of this, the banks and legal institutions are not and consciously commit fraud against those they allegedly “lend” money to.
“It really is that simple and the banks, judges and politicians know this is the truth,” he said. “They also know if the people knew it the system would be in big trouble.”
According to Stuart, banks immediately sell the Promissory Note after closing to investors and other lenders and by the time a homeowner faces foreclosure the Promissory Note has changed hands numerous times and is extremely difficult to find.
By law the Promissory Note and the Deed of Trust need to be together in the hands of the bank foreclosing on the property in order for the foreclosure to be legal. A bank must possess the original debt instrument upon which the bank claims its right to foreclose on one’s property.
According to Stuart a Holder In Due Course (the owner of the Promissory Note) is the only party that can foreclose.
“There are numerous holders and they can all sue for relief,” he said. “But only the Holder In Due Course can foreclose. In foreclosure, the homeowner is the true owner, but the court is allowing a legal owner to take the property. The court does not have that authority but few seem to be able to get that concept.”
Stuart occasionally holds seminars where hundreds of people in the foreclosure process attend, of which dozens are successfully tying up the foreclosure proceedings in court with the legal arguments Stuart outlines and provides in the form of templates and specific instructions for properly filing lawsuits, injunctions and Temporary Restraining Orders.
Sedona resident Michael Brosnahan, who attended one of Stuart’s seminars, said the information garnered was invaluable. So far, he has been able to stop the foreclosure process on two of his homes for more than a year.
“He gives you practical, hands-on information that works,” he said. “It’s refreshing to have people step up to the plate and do something about how the banks are stealing our homes. I think John Stuart is an American hero.”
Stewart said people are finding success with his methods in halting foreclosures in Arizona.
“We have had some small wins, a couple of big wins,” he said. “People are starting to grasp the theory and are really starting to hammer the banks. Attorneys are starting to use my stuff in their pleadings.”
An inventor with dozens of patents including tools, high-tech electronics, weapons accessories, medical and safety products Stuart learned his legal expertise not through formal education the hard way – not in school but by being thrown in jail.
“I was self taught,” he said. “I was the lead witness against Joe Arpaio for his officers torturing inmates while I was in the jail,” he said. “We won the case in part due to my testimony and the pleadings. I read Black’s Law Sixth Edition, the Oxford Dictionary, Arizona Revised Statutes and Arizona Court procedures in jail. While working on my own cases.
He said despite being persecuted by the law and the courts for daring to stand up to them, his sense of service to humanity, truth and justice keep him going.
“From those who much is given, much is expected,” he said. “I have known the whole truth since I was a child. People have argued with me my whole life and come back years, even decades later and told me they finally learned I was right. I tell people the truth and pray they can block out their brainwashing and learn it. Growing up knowing the truth means I didn’t get brainwashed like everyone else I’ve ever met did. I knew the foundation of everything we are taught is a lie.”
He said law will never trump the truth and that in America people are led to believe the opposite.
“I understand a premise that all lawyers, the government and judges, etc. do not want us to understand,” he said. “Simply put, law does not trump truth. As an example, the concept of trusts comes from the Crusades. The Knight out on a Crusade was the true owner of his land but he left it in a trust while has gone. The trustee became the “legal” owner. When the Knight came back the trustee had to return the land to the Knight. Truth trumps legal every time. Our courts have brainwashed Americans to believe that legal is the same as true. This one secret is the foundation of all that is being used to take our freedom.”
